296 OP SPIRITUAL MINDEDNESS. and advantage which he received by them, as he con- stantly declares. And the sole reason, on the one hand, why men grow so careless, negligent, and cold, in their attendance to the preaching of the word, is because they have no experience of any spiritual bene- fit or advantage by it. They have been brought to it by one means Or another, mostly by conviction of their duty. Their minds have been variously affect- ed with it, to a joy in the hearing of it, and readiness to sundry duties of obedience: but after awhile, when a sense öf those temporary impressions is worn off; finding no real spiritual benefit by it, they lose all de- light in it, and becomevery indifferent as to its enjoy- ment. The frame which such persons at length arrive to is described, Mal. i. 13, and iii. 14. And none can give any greater evidence of the decay of all manner Of grace in them, or of their being destitute of all say, ing grace, than when they apostatize from some degree of zeal for, and delight in, the dispensation of the word of God, with such a cursed indifferency, as many are overtaken with. It cannot be otherwise. For Seeing this is a way and means of the exercise of all grace, it will not be neglected; but where there is a decay of all grace ; however men may please them- selves with other pretences. And when they are thus ensnared, every foolish prejudice, every provocation, every wanton opinion and imagination will confirm them in, and increase their gradual backsliding. And as it is with believers, as to the hearing of the word in general, so it is as to the degreesof advantage which they find by it. When men have enjoyed the dispensation of the word in a peculiar manner, spirit- ual and effectual; if they can be content to forego it,' for that which is more cold and lifeless, provided it
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=